HomePod - An Awesome Speaker That Lets Siri Dim Lights
Using Apple's HomePod with Apple's HomeKit, your lovely voice to will soon be able to control appliances and other devices without being connected to the Cloud. These devices are becoming increasingly popular, and tech giants are all competing with each other to provide the best one to consumers. Apple's version of Google Home and Alexa is coming in time for Christmas and one really nice tidbit caught my eye as I was reading about its features. I was reading the 2017 iOS Security White Paper and to my privacy-first delight:
“If a user doesn’t have multiple devices, and refuses to grant additional users access to their home, no Home Kit data is synchronized to iCloud”It appears that of all the manufacturers, Apple likes and wants to give us as much control of our security and our privacy as is doable at this point. Bottom line, Apple doesn’t need to make money by selling our personal information. We buy their products and their apps and hopefully, that’s enough.
Unfortunately for the EMF-conscious...
It does use WiFi and Bluetooth as you would assume and we don't love EMF exposure so much. And it can definitely access the cloud if you want multiple users to have access to your appliances or other devices around your house—but it doesn’t have to. Now, not totally sure about how many or which devices work without sending data to the cloud. The link to the best overall article reviewing HomePod is in Research below. We’ll find out exactly how elegant HomePod works when we buy one and test it out. And, if you'd like to be conscious of this product or any other electronics, try out one of the meters! Till then, careful what you say to Miss Alexa, Miss Cortana, and Google Home!
-xo August